Best Permit & Campsite Alert Apps in 2026
Sold-out permits and campgrounds leak inventory constantly as people cancel. A whole category of tools exists to catch those openings, and they differ. Here is what each one covers in 2026. We make one of them, PermitSnag, and every claim below is checked against the tool's own public site.
The quick answer
Coverage is the fastest way to narrow this down. Here is what each tool actually covers:
- PermitSnag sends cancellation alerts on wilderness permits (Whitney, the Enchantments, the JMT, river permits) plus campsites. It is also the only tool on this list with lottery reminders and group pools.
- Campflare covers US campgrounds plus cancellation alerts on 45 named wilderness permits, free, and no lotteries.
- PermitAlert covers any permit on Recreation.gov, free, by text, river and rafting permits included, and no lotteries or campgrounds.
- Campnab covers US and Canadian campgrounds, with some permit and day-use scanning, and no lotteries.
- Outdoor Status sells single-permit SMS trackers across popular US destinations plus a few international ones, and no lotteries.
- CampScanner covers campgrounds, timed entry and day passes on a flat annual price, and no lotteries.
- Arvie covers campgrounds and can do the booking for you, and no lotteries.
- Outdoorithm covers campgrounds with native mobile apps, and no lotteries.
PermitSnag: wilderness permit cancellations first
PermitSnag tracks 754 US wilderness permits (Recreation.gov, California and Utah state parks, BLM, NPS) plus 118,000+ campsites, and alerts you the moment a cancellation opens. Alerts go out by push, SMS, email, and browser notification, with Fast Lane links that open the exact permit page instead of a search. On lottery permits you also get reminders for each application window, group lottery pools, and odds pages built from official statistics. Free tier includes one alert with hourly scans. Pro is $9.99/month (or $79.99/year) with roughly one-minute scans and unlimited alerts. A single permit costs $19 a la carte.
Campflare: free campground and permit alerts
Campflare covers 10,000+ US campgrounds, checks each one roughly every 45 seconds and the popular ones more often, and is completely free with email and text alerts plus an iOS app. It has since added free cancellation alerts on 45 named wilderness permits, including Mt. Whitney, the Enchantments, Yosemite, Zion and Grand Canyon, scanned every few minutes. What it does not have is the lottery layer: no application windows, no deadline reminders, no odds. On a lottery permit it can tell you when somebody else gives a spot back, and nothing about winning one in the draw. Plenty of people run Campflare for campgrounds and PermitSnag for wilderness permits side by side.
PermitAlert: free, and it covers river permits
PermitAlert scans every permit on Recreation.gov, including river and rafting permits that most competitors skip, every 60 seconds, and texts you when a spot opens. It is free, funded by optional $5, $10, or $15 donations, and needs no account for a basic alert. What it does not do: lottery tooling, campsite tracking, or anything beyond SMS.
Campnab: US and Canadian campgrounds
Campnab is the veteran of campsite cancellation scanning, covering 3,200+ parks and 7,000+ campgrounds across the US and Canada, with some permit and day-use scanning too. Memberships run CAD $10-30/month for 3-7 concurrent scans, and one-off pay-per-use scans cost $10-20 each. Its Canadian coverage (BC Parks, Parks Canada, Ontario Parks) reaches parks PermitSnag does not. What it has no equivalent of is the lottery layer: application windows, deadline reminders and group pools.
Outdoor Status: per-permit SMS trackers
Outdoor Status sells cancellation trackers for popular permits at roughly $15 each, delivered by text, with solid coverage of marquee US destinations plus some international ones (New Zealand Great Walks, Canadian backcountry). It is simple and it works. The trade-offs: SMS only, no lottery tooling, and per-permit pricing that adds up fast if you track more than one thing per season.
CampScanner: broad coverage from the Harvest Hosts network
CampScanner, built by Harvest Hosts, scans 200,000+ campsites across 9,600+ campgrounds and 2,000+ parks, plus timed entry permits and day passes. Annual plans run from $39 (5 scans, 15-minute checks) to $79 (15 scans, 5-minute checks). No wilderness permit lottery tooling, and you pay more for faster scanning or more concurrent alerts.
Arvie: done-for-you campsite booking
Arvie is different from the rest of this list: its AgentBook feature tries to auto-book a cancelled campsite for you, live, and only charges a flat $19 fee when it actually succeeds. It claims a 65% win rate across 4,700+ parks. There is also a free tier and a $5-per-scan Alert Me option if you'd rather book it yourself. No lottery tooling, campsites only.
Outdoorithm: native apps and an AI assistant
Outdoorithm scans campgrounds across 44 reservation systems with real iOS and Android apps, a usable free tier (1 alert, 5-15 minute scans), and an AI trip-planning assistant called Camp Sage. Paid tiers run $12.99 to $19 a month for more alerts, faster scans, and SMS. It is backed by a nonprofit arm, Outdoorithm Collective. No wilderness permit lottery tooling.
Pro tip: alerts are half the game
Whichever tool you pick, speed of response matters more than speed of scanning. Have the reservation site logged in on your phone, know your party size and dates cold, and act within minutes. High-demand cancellations are often rebooked in under ten minutes.
How to compare them yourself
Before committing to any alert service, check:
- Does it cover your specific permit or campground? Coverage lists differ more than marketing suggests.
- What channels does it alert on? SMS beats email when a spot lasts minutes.
- How many alerts can you run at once, and what does that cost?
- Does it catch cancellations on wilderness permits, or only on campgrounds? And does it help with the lottery too?
Conclusion
If your trip needs a permit, a lottery, or both, that is the job PermitSnag was built for: cancellation alerts that link straight to the permit page that opened, with lottery reminders and group pools included. If you only ever chase drive-in campsites, the free campground tools will do the trick. See the full feature-by-feature breakdown for each tool on the PermitSnag alternatives hub.